Benny's Video (1992)

Don't Believe the Hype

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

"Benny's Video" is an Austrain German-language movie from over 25 years ago written and directed by Michael Haneke. It was also Austria's official submission to the Academy Awards that year, but failed to get nominated. The cast includes Arno Frisch and Ulrich Mühe, who both appear in Haneke's even more famous "Funny Games" a couple years later. As for "Benny's Video", it is the second installment from a trilogy by Haneke, called "Glaciation". And in my opinion, it is also the best from the series. A lot of the action in this film has to do with making the wrong decisions. The parents must have made many wrong decisions about their son before the film starts already and this leads to a fatefully wrong decision by the son. In their attempts to deal with the situation, the parents make a decision that is at least morally wrong, but proves also factually wrong with the events at the end. Haneke loves to finish his films with major plot twists and this one here is no exception. Benny's decision at the end has a major impact on the future and something like this could already have been predicted when we see his father tell him he loves him, but he does not respond. I think he may have even hated him. He did not see the sacrifice their parents, especially his dad, made for him as he did not really see the wrong in what he had done. Benny is the epitome of a sociopath and his parents failed to realize that and metaphorically buried their own grave in the decisions they made and in the behavior they showed towards their son after the murder. As a whole, these 105 minutes were a pretty good watch. Strong acting by everybody involved and high-quality writing that will have you on the edge of your seat for the entire film basically. It is interesting how we see all the crucial events on video and not the way they actually happen, even if they happen at the same time. I certainly recommend "Benny's Video". A truly good watch, but not for people who are easily offended and cannot deal with violence. Everybody else should check it out.

I don't find the movie particularly interesting. There's a consensus among the viewers that Benny's actions are influenced by his lifestyle and media violence addiction. Whether this was Haneke's idea or not the message is simply wrong.What is overlooked is that Benny is a typical psychopath. In real life it'd be much harder to make a diagnosis but for fictional characters approximations are good enough. The portrayal isn't completely accurate but many of the common signs are there: shallow affect, the total lack of empathy, conscience and remorse, insidiousness, impulsiveness, irresponsibility, casual use of violence, etc. Anyone who wants to learn more should read "Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us" by Robert D. Hare, one of the leading experts in the field.Long story short: Benny's media preferences are the extension of his pathological personality not the other way around. Psychopaths existed long before Hollywood and their actions are not dictated by something they saw in a film somewhere.

The world though Benny's video camera is a disjointed, skewed and dangerous one. Played back through his VCR, along with the countless video nasties he seems to be able to rent without his age (14) being questioned from his local video rental store, that distortion is multiplied indefinitely.At times, this film is repulsive and sickening, as we start with a pig that the family want to slaughter for meat is filmed having a bolt shot through its head. "It's only a pig", Benny says, as he rewinds, again and again and repeats the animal's death and subsequent squirming in slo-mo.His parents are involved in the travel business and go away whilst Benny stays at home with all his high-tech gizmos, all that his parents had bought for him, presumably to make him happy. Getting a girl into this ivory tower of his, he plays her the pig vid and then shows the instrument used on the animal that he had stolen for a souvenir. In a game of dare, she gets shot with it and this is where it all goes horribly strange and ugly. Most folks - all folks, actually - would phone for an ambulance. He doesn't, he re-loads it with bolts and does so again and again. We see a TV with this being filmed, with only the periphery showing. He then films himself streaking her blood on his naked body.I hope that this hasn't spoiled things too much but the main thrust of the film is the aftermath of all this. Parents come home, Benny gets a skinhead haircut and then replays the vids of the "accident" over and again, just when the parents are going past the open door of his room.What we make of Haneke's matter of fact portrayal of the parents colluding to and discussing what to do with her body is one of open debate. Their emotionless disdain for what has happened appals, and so it should. Benny and his mother then go on holiday to the Red Sea, where Benny films everything.The films pans out to its end matter-of-factly with the family going off to bury the girl's body and Haneke makes a bold and sweeping statement simply by having us watching them through the bank of monitors that show what all the surveillance cameras dotted about the house show.Though Benny's Video was made exactly 20 years ago, it still is as important and pertinent now as it was then. Uncompromising and powerful, if largely unlikeable.I watched this as part of the Michael Haneke 10 DVD anthology.

Jeez!!!!!! For the past thirteen years it has been impossible to get anything other than a crappy VHS copy of Michael Haneke's brilliant and disturbing "Benny's Video". Finally, it is out on DVD. It sure took 'em long enough! First off, if you think you're a film buff and you have never of Michael Haneke - THINK AGAIN. The Austrian Haneke is one of the great idiosyncratic filmmakers of our times. And his "emotional glaciation" trilogy (all of it finally out on DVD - hooray!!) deserves to be seen by everyone!! Everyone!! That means you! You - reading this!! "Benny's Video" is number two in the brilliant, brilliant trilogy and centers around 14-year old Benny, a young man consumed with violent media images and video. In particular, a video of a pig being slaughtered. Benny spends his days with his shades drawn, listening to speed metal and watching violent video images. He doesn't even look outside, but has a camera set up to play a constant, live "view" of the outside world on one of his TVs.The plot essentially takes off when Benny invites a young girl (and possible love interest) back to his parents house while they are away."Benny's Video" is one of the great commentaries on violence in the media and social apathy. It ranks up there with "Man Bites Dog" and "Natural Born Killers".The last third of the film lulls a little bit, but other than that this is essential Michael Haneke. Highly recommended.